Later on Wednesday, The Star Tribune of Minneapolis published an email from Mr. Keillor in response to a reporter’s questions, giving his version of an encounter with an unidentified woman.

“I put my hand on a woman’s bare back,” he wrote. “I meant to pat her back after she told me about her unhappiness and her shirt was open and my hand went up it about six inches. She recoiled. I apologized. I sent her an email of apology later and she replied that she had forgiven me and not to think about it.”

Mr. Keillor claimed that they continued to be friends “right up until her lawyer called.”

He insisted his discomfort with physical affection was common knowledge, adding, “If I had a dollar for every woman who asked to take a selfie with me and who slipped an arm around me and let it drift down below the beltline, I’d have at least a hundred dollars.”

Other US broadcasting journalists fired recently over claims of inappropriate behaviour include Matt Lauer, Charlie Rose and Bill O'Reilly.

Are we supposed to believe that women, who have been in the workplace for decades, have kept quiet about unacceptable behaviour/sexual assault all along and only now have found the capacity to report it, or are some inflating behaviour previously thought inconsequential in a bid for personal gain, e.g. compensation?

I saw him live on his last tour, and honestly, as a Swiss with very little TV and radio consumption even in the USA I had heard his name for the first time only a few days before, when my OH told me she had gotten the tickets.

I probably was the only person among 5000 who had no idea what I was in for. First he came down the very long aisle, which took him about ten minutes, talking to the people nearby, including me, because I was sitting right next to the aisle. He involved me in a little conversation over the PA system as soon as he heard my foreign accent, and it was plain fun. He even asked me if I knew where Lake Wobegon is, and of course the whole audience laughed as I said, "Never heard of it."

I had an absolute blast during the entire three-hour performance (without intermission). The artists were great, no exception, the mix of musical styles was breathtaking, and Keillor's duets with the petite Sarah Jarosz were top notch. At the beginning, while talking with him face to face, I wondered how a guy with a mug like a Basset hound after a head-on collision can be such a star, but by the end of the show I understood.

Frankly, I think the whole thing is running out of control. Of course it's a matter that has to be taken seriously, but if I had sued all the women that touched my knee in the course of dental treatments even with my assistant sitting next to us, I could have retired 20 years ago. Instead I just moved my knee out of reach. Gosh, was I stupid.

__________________
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"At the time the complaint was made, the complainant requested that the matter be dealt with confidentially, and did not want Mr Rush notified or involved in any investigation." ...

Rush’s lawyer said: “It is a great disappointment to Mr Rush the STC [Sydney Theatre Company] has chosen to smear his name and unjustifiably damage his reputation in this way. Not to afford a person their right to know what has been alleged against them, let alone not inform them of it but release such information to the public, is both a denial of natural justice and is not how our society operates.

“At this stage, Mr Rush can only reiterate his statement that he denies having been involved in any ‘inappropriate behaviour’ whatsoever. Until there is the decency afforded to Mr Rush of what the ‘inappropriate behaviour’ actually is then there is nothing more that can be said at this stage.

“The public and the media need to note this is a highly stressful and frustrating time for Mr Rush and his family, especially when there are no details concerning the ‘inappropriate behaviour’.”

Garrison Keillor, and especially Lake Wobegon, has been part of my life for almost 30 years. In most of his work, especially the short stories, his first person writing comes across as very much autobiographical. If he really is like that in real life I can't imagine him being comfortable shaking hands with another woman never mind touching one in a creepy way.

I think his statement is pretty clear and conclusive and I doubt he has anything to feel guilty about. But who knows, he could be the darkest of horses. I just really hope he isn't.

The accusations about Hoffman have been swirling around for a few weeks now, but that clip is an uncomfortable watch. Things weren't 'different' 40yrs ago, and 150yrs ago, behaviour like that would have seen men fighting to protect/defend the honour of a woman.

The accusations about Hoffman have been swirling around for a few weeks now, but that clip is an uncomfortable watch. Things weren't 'different' 40yrs ago, and 150yrs ago, behaviour like that would have seen men fighting to protect/defend the honour of a woman.

They were "different" in that you could get away with a lot more than today.

Hoffman probably has done some self-reflection and soul-seeking during the last weeks and knows that a lot of stuff is going to get to the surface.
A 40 year acting career makes for a lot of hurt feelings and ill-treated co-actors.
He knows what's coming - and what he has seen so far of the reactions, he knows it's not going to be pretty.

They were "different" in that you could get away with a lot more than today.

I disagree. Good guys don't behave in an abusive manner, whether it was in the 1970's or today. They didn't "get away with" anything, because they didn't behave that way in the first place.

I went for drinks last week with a guy I was at college with back in the early 1980's. We both remembered the rumours about a certain member of the college staff that you never left your female fellow students alone with, no matter what the circumstances were. The perpetrator always claimed his behaviour was "a joke", right up until his dismissal.

When I was at school in the mid 1970's, two of my teachers were dismissed for their sexual behaviour towards children. My best friend at school, was removed and sent to public school by her parents, when she revealed that she'd been assaulted by both teachers.

A creep is a creep, and I'm so disappointed in Hoffman's responses in the video. I hoped he was better than that.

Keillor and Hoffman are both accomplished performers with long successful careers, and both have some odd personality traits and checkered pasts, but otherwise the two are very different people, and the recent negative publicity they have incurred concerns circumstances quite significantly different in both kind and degree.

Most acute and glaring difference: The films Hoffman played in have never been instantaneously wiped out of public existence.